2: Axis Mundi
Focusing her senses once more on the path ahead, she dived into a canyon and then upwards, towards a point in the middle of nowhere. There was a flux there, an unstable point of energy, and as she touched it, everything around her changed – only slightly, but it was still a change. It was as if she was now looking down on the world below through frosted glass, and across the lands she could see the streams of mana twisting around like veins. From the palaces at the heart of the Queendoms, she could see shafts of light connecting to the Goddess above, who now appeared closer and brighter than ever.
This was all eerily familiar for Phantasia. She had seen this sort of place before, when she had once accompanied Faye to meet the Guardian God of the Water Queendom. To reach the higher planes, one had to travel through specific gates in the heights of the palaces, but in this case Phantasia had found one that occurred naturally, unseen to anyone but her.
She moved towards the World Axis, which looked as vivid as it had done before, even while the rest of the Innerworld looked so hazy. With some concentration, Phantasia could make out the translucent shadows of lands above them. They would be the lands in which the Guardians lived, surrounded by the primordial elementals, she thought – lands so close, and yet still so very distant.
She headed towards another invisible gateway, this one leading her downwards. She could feel Dionysus’s knowledge quietly explaining everything to her.
It is a maze no faerie can navigate. I tried, but all I could do was map the points. It would take a faerie who could focus the elements together, blending their powers into a single truth, to unravel. A faerie that could never exist. A faerie like you.
Down she plunged, through the lands of the faeries until she skimmed along the border of the Underworld. Eyes looked hungrily back, but Dionysus’s directions dragged her away before she could be haunted further. With each dive and ascent, she came ever closer to the spiralling World Axis, and the closer she came, the more she could see. No longer just a whirlpool of magical energies, it had become a great cyclone connecting the conflux to the Goddess.
A conduit that channels the flow of life. Long ago the tower had connected all the layers of the world together, but when humans rebelled against nature and demons were born, it was sealed to protect the inner worlds and the Goddess from corruption. That seal is as weak now as the life force of the planet, and only the hidden knowledge of the World Axis prevents it from being abused. Only the four Queens, and their kings, know of its existence. And now you.
As she approached the ethereal tower, she began to feel Dionysus’s touch weaken, his knowledge fade. The tower reached into the heavens and delved into the darkness, connecting everything along a single axis. How long had it been since faeries had last laid eyes on its frightening splendour? Surely Phantasia wasn’t the first?
Nearing the twisting, roaring wall, she noticed an archway leading into the tower. It was conveniently placed in front of her, as if the tower knew she was coming. Faye would have cautioned her about going inside. Phantasia ignored the wary voice of her handmaiden and continued, knowing how much trouble her recklessness would one day get her into. The chaos before her was attacking every sense, but she pressed on, until she passed through the solitary tunnel and into the World Axis.
